


Softer Sides

by 1000PaperCranes



Category: Transformers - All Media Types, Transformers: Rescue Bots, Transformers: Rescue Bots Academy (Cartoon)
Genre: Better Than Kiss Players, But It's A Weird Life, But Still Crack, Crack, Crack Treated Seriously, Fluff, Gen, Not a Song-Fic, Slice of Life, Surprise guest - Freeform, This Is Transformers: What Did You Expect?, Young and dumb, unlikely friendship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-23
Updated: 2019-11-23
Packaged: 2021-02-26 01:20:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,520
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21535081
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/1000PaperCranes/pseuds/1000PaperCranes
Summary: The recruits' day takes a turn for the weird when a stranger appears.
Relationships: Chase & Heatwave (Transformers), Kade Burns & Chase, Kade Burns & Heatwave
Comments: 3
Kudos: 63





	Softer Sides

The recruits entered the sim room, eager to be early to make up for annoying Heatwave in the classroom. Today’s simulations were bound to be tough, not that they were ever easy. Even when Heatwave said they would be easy; something always went wrong.

“Wes!” Whirl gasped excitedly, spotting a red-haired human on the floor. The recruits rushed forward, but it quickly became obvious that the unmoving figure was _not_ Wes. Or any other human they had met.

“Where’s Heatwave?” Hoist asked. “What’s going on?”

“We’re robots in _disguise_ , remember?” Medix whisper-shouted. “This is obviously a test.”

The recruits rushed to the walls, pretending to be statues before the human woke up.

The human didn’t move. It was breathing, and appeared to be male, but that was it. He didn’t sit up, or talk, or anything. It was hard to be patient, and _still_ , while they waited for Heatwave to arrive and address the intruder, especially without anything but an… _unconscious_ human for entertainment, but they managed. Mostly.

Finally, the door opened, but it wasn’t Heatwave. A blue dinobot with a white face ambled in. It headed straight for the human.

Whirl tensed, gritting her dentition and squealing into the coms. ::A dinobot. A _dinobot_! What do we _do_!” She sounded scared.

The dinobot paid them no attention, focused solely on the unaware human.

::We could grab it?:: Wedge suggested. ::It’s pretty small:: The stegosaur, right? was in fact only about half the size of a recruit, but it was still massive compared to the… probably sleeping man.

::What if it attacks us?:: Whirl panicked. She was clearly terrified, and it made the others doubt the situation even more. ::Bionic dinobots are _ferocious_ ::

::What if it attacks the human?:: Wedge countered.

No one answered, paralyzed with indecision.

Fortunately, the dinobot seemed more curious than… hungry. Did dinobots even _eat_ humans?

The dinobot, with its softly glowing energon blue optics, nudged the human with its snout. It snuffled and sniffed, investigating the organic lifeform. Maybe he wasn’t sleeping? He was definitely breathing, so not _dead_... The dinobot rounded the man’s head, deeply probing his shoulder with its blue nose.

The human rolled with a giggle, grasping the stegosaur’s tail just above its sharp spines.

Still not ferocious at all, the dinobot nuzzled the back of the man’s head, puffing his short red hair into disarray with its hot breath. The man did not release the stegosaur’s tail. It circled him once more, tail somehow rotating comfortably within the man’s persistent grip.

The man snickered.

The dinobot laid on him.

“Oof.” The man’s voice was pleasant, and not truly strained by the weight of the dinobot pressing the full length of his body to the floor. The stegosaur rested its head upon the human’s chest, nudging his jaw affectionately with the tip of nose. The man smoothed his hands over the dinobot’s head. Softly, he rubbed the stegosaurs muzzle with his fingertips, occasionally running his hands back to massage the dinobot’s short rabbitty audials.

A humming, vibrating, rhythmic sound slowly permeated to room. Was… was the dinobot purring? Like an alloygator? Or a _dragon_?

Both human and dinobot relaxed, looking almost drowsy. The man continued to favor the cyberbeast with affectionate touches. They stayed like that for a long time, apparently content to enjoy each other’s company until someone disturbed them. And it wouldn’t be the recruits, no way, no how. That dinobot might like that human, but it didn’t mean for one second that it wouldn’t tear a hapless youngling limb from limb.

Far too long later, the door to the sim room finally swept open. Heatwave walked in looking consternated.

“Chase, have you seen the recruits?”

The dinobot backed off the human. “They are pretending not to be here.” He shoved his muzzle into the small of the human’s back, pushing him along the floor. The man laughed delightedly, rolling and grabbing the floor, turning the stegosaur’s push toward the far wall into a game.

 _That_ was _Professor Chase_?!

“How long are you gonna be here, Kade?” Heatwave asked, looking skeptically, not at the human, but at the recruits along the wall.

“I don’t know.” _Kade_ toppled up onto the stegosaur’s head. The man chuckled as he was successfully pinned against the wall. The dinobot kept its head in the human’s lap, licking and nosing the human’s abdomen, which elicited uncontrollable giggles from the man.

“State police are on the island,” _Chase_ informed, speaking directly into Kade’s skin and drawing out further peals of laughter. “The Chief ordered Kade to bring me in for ‘repairs’.”

“ _Primus_ , Chase, that _tickles_!” Kade wheezed, pushing at the stegosaur’s angular head.

The dinobot chose to pull back, looking Kade directly in the eyes. “I know.” He briefly nuzzled the man’s cheek, then grabbed him by the shoulder of his shirt and dragged him back to the center of the floor.

“Oh, yeah?” Kade reached up, wrapping his arms around the back of the stegosaur’s skull, but managing little success in wrestling the dinobot. He didn’t seem to care much, squirming and growling playfully and chuffing out little guffaws.

Heatwave turned away from the spectacle, now shrewdly examining the motionless recruits along the wall to his left. Finally, the firebot groaned quietly, shaking his head in exasperation. “Recruits, this is Kade Burns, Cody’s oldest brother. He was my handler, my _partner_ , until Optimus assigned me to run the training center.”

The recruits cautiously stepped away from the walls.

“You don’t need to hide from humans _inside_ the training center.” Heatwave smirked. “Kade knows more about me than you do.”

“Darn tootin’!” Kade’s voice was strained, but when they turned to look, he had curled himself up, now clinging ridiculously to the stegosaur’s head with both his arms and his legs. “No! No! Don’t lick me! Don’t lick me! I give!”

Kade let go all at once, flopping gracelessly to the floor. His white shirt was pushed up to his ribs. Humans were apparently _completely covered_ in skin, not just the parts that didn’t have clothes. The skin of Kade’s abdomen was wet from being licked, but he ignored it, tucking his shirt into the top of his black BDUs.

The stegosaur shoved his head under Kade’s raised hips, trapping the man in a back bend.

“You have no shame.” Heatwave shook his heat at the dinobot’s antics, bemused.

“I fail to see why shame would be required in this scenario.” Kade jostled with every word until he fell off Chase’s face.

“Well, I guess you don’t need shame,” Heatwave conceded with a smirk, approaching the pair, “when you never do anything wrong.” He reached down, prodding Kade with one broad, blunt digit. “But _you_ , what’s your excuse?”

The stegosaur chose that moment to transform, long tracts of smooth mesh splitting like a satsuma. It truly was Professor Chase. The playful, black bear sized dinobot, was their well-intentioned but hopelessly strait-laced instructor. He ignored the glittery streaks of energon on the edges of his plates, looking askance at Heatwave’s transfixed stare. The firebot ran a lingering, gimlet gaze over the very much undamaged plating as Chase called for Elma to return him to size.

Kade wrapped his muscular arms around Heatwave’s digit. “How ya been?” he asked, cocking his head fondly.

“It’s tough,” Heatwave allowed. The fact that he was on a different level with this creature, that Heatwave could be soft and gentle and smile _like that_ was a stinging realization.

“Me too,” Kade chuckled, having no difficulty holding on as Heatwave pulled back. The man dangled in the air, unafraid.

Heatwave snorted half a laugh, turning his hand to hold the human in his palm. “I bet.”

“Funny.” Kade grinned up at Heatwave and didn’t protest as he was transferred to the firebot’s shoulder. “We’re getting new officers.” Heatwave turned, meandering out of the sim room as the man chattered. “Jack Tracker decided Dad needed help last time he was out, and he does. So, Jack is transferring, and he’s bringing Holli Burnham, too.”

“The one that Hayley dumped you for helping in the middle of the night?” Heatwave asked, voice fading as they reached the end of the hall.

“Yeah, her,” Kade confirmed brightly. “She’s awesome, but Coast City is having trouble protecting her, even on duty.” Kade’s distant voice jumped happily. “Mrs. Luskey whacked the mayor upside the head when he said they were only taking Jack because Barney agreed to retire; we don’t have the funds for blah blah blah, and BLAM! One glare and like three seconds later he was signing her transfer.”

“I would have _paid_ to see that.” Heatwave’s voice was almost indistinguishably far away.

Kade’s sunnier tone carried just a little farther. “I _might_ have a video. What cha gonna give me—” and they were gone.

“Right,” Chase said in that yay-teaching tone he had. Something sweet and indulgent hovered around his optics. Which was of zero benefit to his students. “Heatwave planned for you to do scenarios 45 through 54.”

The recruits groaned. They lined up, assuming roll out formation as Chase started the first simulation.


End file.
